


Inside the Mirror

by Rykura



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon), Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Other, Puzzleshipping, Tendershipping, geminishipping, yugioh characters replace steven universe characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-06 02:47:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14632493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rykura/pseuds/Rykura
Summary: Yugioh-Steven Universe AU one shot, where Ryou is Lapis Lazuli and Yugi frees him from the mirror!There’s no real shipping here, just freeing Ryou from the mirror from his point of view.





	Inside the Mirror

Yugioh-Steven Universe AU one shot, where Ryou is Lapis Lazuli and Yugi frees him from the mirror! I wasn’t sure which pronouns to use so I just stuck with the Yugioh universe pronouns, but let it be known in this AU gems still are made up of light and have no true gender!

Also, this universe isn’t meant to match the show’s exact plot because… ships. So in this universe, Yugi is a normal human, Ishizu acts as Pearl, Mai _and_ Bakura are Amethysts and Bakura acts more like Ruby’s side of Garnet (cause I like tender/ geminishipping), Jounouchi is Lars, Anzu acts as Sadie (although she and Jounouchi aren’t a thing) and Atem is Rose Quartz (Pink Diamond) and still alive.

There’s no real shipping here, just freeing Ryou from the mirror from _his_ point of view.

Hope you enjoy~

 

* * *

 

Dark.

It was dark. And grey, and silent, like usual.

The usual torture of being conscious in an infinite prison of glass and darkness. A place where one could only be left with their thoughts. But he had already gone through all his memories and thoughts and possible thoughts millions of times over. There was nothing left to think about.

That’s what happens when you get trapped in a mirror for thousands of years.

You relive everything in your short life until it all becomes meaningless and jumbled.

At one point, he had gone insane. He had seen things crawling in the shadows, had felt them rip his body apart photon by photon. Felt his gem shatter hundreds of times. Sometimes, he wished when his gem was cracked that they had just shattered the whole gem right there at the Galaxy Warp.

And then there were times like these, when he let his mind go blank, his eyes close, and he drifted into nothingness. His back laid on the cold, infinite floor of black glass, limbs spread out. Completely uncaring, almost faded away.

And then, something happened.

The giant glass surface shaped like his mirror lit up and the dark world that was his prison began to glow. He opened his eyes miserably slow, pushed himself up into a sitting position and looked up at the window into the real world.

It truly was torture. To see everything pass you by, and not be able to say a thing.

He covered his eyes, the bright light blinding. It had been so long since he had seen light or heard sound that wasn’t from his own mind.

But the voice that filled the room cut him open and bled hatred throughout his fractured mind.

“We found this gem powered mirror at the Galaxy Warp! It can capture and display any event it’s witnessed in all of gem history!” He watched the dark-haired, gold decorated Pearl grin through the window and scowled fiercely.

 _Of course,_ he thought. _I’m just a tool, I’m just a source of power. Not a real person. Just a tool._

He had imagined shattering her many times.

Thankfully, the mirror was caught and a face filled the window.

_A… human?_

The human had big, violet eyes, round cheeks, pale skin, golden bangs and spiked black hair with violet tips.

“It’ll offer you everything you’ve ever wanted to know about your fellow gems and our culture.” The pearl rested her hands on the human’s shoulders and smiled proudly.

 _Yeah right,_ the gem thought. _Like I'd show you anything._

“Wow… I must be incredibly important to gem culture.” The human held out his mirror and posed proudly. The gem inside raised an eyebrow at him.

The pearl didn’t find it quite as amusing as she scoffed. “It’s just you in there. It hasn’t even been activated.” She cleared her throat. “Show us the Galaxy Warp.” The two looked at the mirror expectantly.

An orb of light drifted up from the black glass floor and morphed into a rectangular screen, playing back the memory of the Galaxy Warp. If he touched it, it would show them the memory.

He turned around and buried his face in his knees.

“ _Show_ us the _Galaxy Warp._ ”

He ignored the memory still and fiddled with the ribbons wrapped around his arms in a crossing pattern.

“ _Oh,_ come on!” He grunted as the mirror was grabbed forcefully and caused him to fall over on the inside. “I _know_ you’ve seen it!” The gem inside huffed in satisfaction as the pearl’s angry face sunk into disappointment. “It is in pretty rough shape. It must finally be broken…”

 _Finally?_ He thought _. It must_ finally _be broken?! Like you were waiting for me to break? I’ve been broken for thousands of years! Just leave me alone! Just shatter me! Just go!_ His thoughts were angry shouts and cries and caused more little light orbs to float up and depict his terrible memories from inside the mirror. He waved them all away and covered his ears, like it could do anything to help.

The pearl huffed sadly. “Oh, what a shame.” The human took back the mirror excitedly and posed once again.

“It doesn’t seem broken to me!” He said with a warm smile and the gem inside scoffed at the human loving the depiction of them self.

But the comment did make him feel something… warm? The hue on the inside of the mirror changed from black and grey to some sort of rich, royal blue.

_Of course he wasn't talking about me though..._

It turned back to black.

“Oh well!” The pearl sighed. “I guess that’s the end of our school…” The gem watched as the human gasped in excitement.

“So you could say… school’s out for summer?” The human grinned hopefully pushing the mirror into their cheek.

The pearl waved a dismissive hand. “Yes, good Yugi. There are many ways to say the same thing.” The human jumped up and bolted for the door.

“Schools out!” The human shouted excitedly and ran down the beach while the gem looked anxiously through the mirror to see where he was being taken.

“Happy summer vacation Yugi!” The gem reeled back in confusion as the human started talking to himself in the mirror. “Happy summer vacation Beach City! Yeah-ha-ha!” Suddenly the human ran into something and the gem fell over again in the mirror.

“Hey! Watch where you’re going Yug!” The gem picked himself up from the rough handling and realized the voice came from a new, blonde human who grouched at Yugi for causing him to drop the table he had been handling.

“Sorry! I’m just so excited for summer! Are you excited for summer? I’m so excited for summer!” The gem huffed at the boy’s childish antics as multiple memories surfaced from the glass, depicting blindingly bright and hot days and colorful sunsets. He ignored them as a feminine voice entered the conversation and another human with brown hair and blue eyes entered the screen and crossed her arms with a sigh.

“I think I’m about as excited as I can get setting up extra seating for the summer rush. But, Jounouchi has big plans.” She looked to the blonde human with expectation. The blonde, Jounouchi, had set up the table and was picking his teeth, but paused at her comment.

“You bet I do! All those out-of-town summer babes traveling away from home without their boyfriends… if you know what I mean.” He looked toward Yugi with a suggestive look and the smaller human rolled his eyes with a blush.

“Oh come on Jounouchi!” 

“Maybe I’ll get a few numbers! Maybe I’ll even… _call one._ ” The gem scoffed as did the two other humans.

“Ha, yeah well… Maybe I’ll… meet a new friend!” Said the female and Yugi gasped.

“That’s a great idea! A special new friend to have fun on the beach with in the summer!” The gem raised a brow and huffed bemusedly at the small human who held up the mirror and started walking backwards, using it to see where he was going. “Maybe if I keep using the mirror to guide me I’ll walk backwards into my own beach summer fun buddy!”

“Next time you see me, I’ll be on the arm of a hot womans!” Jounouchi called out before they ran out of hearing range.

The gem watched in mild amusement as Yugi ran backwards, laughing and dancing spur of the moment as he did. When he turned the corner however, the window in the mirror was filled with the image of the front of a truck, getting closer at an alarming speed and the gem panicked. A memory drifted up from the floor hastily and the gem pressed it hastily, not caring what it was, as long as the human realized what was happening.

 _“Watch where you’re going Yug!”_ The blonde human's words rang through the glass room and the gem perked as the human paused and held up the mirror, his surprised violet eyes filling the window.

“Huh?” The human looked around and he gasped as he noticed the truck. “Noooo!” He cried before speedily jumping to the side before it hit them. The truck passed with an annoyed honk and Yugi waved in apology before looking down at the mirror again.

“Man that was close! I should focus more when in town. But… what just happened…?” The gem inside the mirror fidgeted under the human’s scrutiny and multiple memories drifted from the floor. To his own surprise, he looked through them and picked one out before pressing play. The sound of Yugi’s own laughter filled the room and the giant Yugi in the window gasped.

“You work! This is so cool!” The gem sighed in relief at the non-threatening reaction. “What’s it like being a mirror?” The gem was surprised by the question but looked over the memories again.

_“You work!”_

“So you can repeat stuff?”

 _“Yeah-ha-ha!”_ The gem laughed slightly at being talked to again. It felt nice, being heard. Even if it was by using other’s words.

Somehow, they ended up having a full-fledged conversation, mostly upheld by Yugi as the mirror needed more words to hear before being able to respond. Yugi talked about his life, mostly about his friends and the Crystal Gems, but the mirror got quiet when he talked about the other gems so he learned quickly to talk about other things. He told jokes and took them to the beach and asked if the gem could show him things. Older memories had been overtaken and jumbled by thousands of years of darkness, however, and even if they weren’t jumbled, he didn’t want to think about them. He just wanted to talk, for however little time they could.

“You’re pretty funny for a mirror.” Yugi said to his reflection. He had taken them to the beach and the gem enjoyed the sounds of the ocean, his element. The human had laid them down on the sand and kicked his feet in the air as they talked. The gem pulled up the recording of the human just as it was made and pressed play.

_“You’re pretty funny for a mirror.”_

“I’m not a mirror!” The human laughed, and the gem paused in disappointment. Then he tried something. He pulled up another memory, of the pearl talking to him and tried again.

 _“You’re pretty funny for a- Yugi.”_ The human gasped at the combination before beaming.

“You made something new! Say something else!” The gem thought before pulling up multiple memories and doing it again.

_“Yugi- is- a new friend!”_

“Really?”

_“Yeah-ha-ha!”_

“You’re my friend too!” The gem beamed in the glass room which had been turning increasingly bluer and bluer over the course of their conversation. But it all turned pitch black in a second when the human continued.

“I gotta go tell the gems!” The memories fell away instantly, except for one which the gem slammed his fist down on rapidly.

 _“Noooo!”_ The room echoed with Yugi’s own cry and the human paused from where he had gotten up off the sand and turned to head back to the gems.

“Don’t be shy, they’ll love you!” The gem pulled up the same memory on multiple screens and pressed them all at different times.

 _“NoNoNoooo!” Yugi don’t! Please don’t take me back to them!_ The gem thought fearfully.

“Don’t worry, they’re a good audience.” The human assured, and the gem watched helplessly, _always_ helplessly, as he started running for the gems.

He let the memories fall away, the room became dark and silent. He turned around, away from the window and rested his chin on his knees, staring glumly at the cracked, tear drop shaped gem on the back of his left hand. He faintly heard Yugi converse with the gems. It was faded and quiet, because he didn’t want to listen, but of course he had to. Was forced to. That was his job. His prison. His torture.

As a bystander to his own life.

“I fixed the mirror!” Yugi announced excitedly and the gem inside buried his face in his dress. _Just stay quiet. Just don’t say anything._

“Excellent work Yugi!” The pearl praised.

“You didn’t tell me it’s like a person!” The gem inside squeezed tighter into his ball of misery. _No no no Yugi_ please _stop!_

“Wait… _what_?” The pearl questioned in alarm and the mirror gem’s hands travelled into his white hair anxiously.

“Say hey!” Yugi said. The mirror didn’t respond. “Little buddy!” He encouraged. Once again, silence. “Uh… excuse us…” Yugi paused, noticing finally that something was wrong, and turned around to talk to the mirror more privately. A strange gesture, considering he was just a mirror to the human.

“Come on… you want to come out, don’t you?” _Do I?_ The gem thought. _I can't remember if I've thought about that..._  “You have so much to say, and funny noises to share from across the ages.” The gem looked up and turned around slightly to look at the window. It was like Yugi was looking directly at him, his soft violet eyes inviting and encouraging. “Are we not beach summer fun buddies?” He asked and the gem huffed.

A memory drifted up and formed into a screen and the gem hesitated for a few moments before pressing play with a shaky hand.

The sound of Yugi blowing a raspberry into his hand filled the room and the human laughed.

“Just couldn’t help yourself, could you?” He said with a chuckle. With more confidence, the gem made something again with the memories that came to him.

 _“Just- for- you- Yug!”_ Yugi’s laughing filled the space on repeat as the gem held his hand down on the memory. He himself was smiling at the window filled with Yugi’s smiling face which in turn filled him with courage and comfort.

But he heard the gems in the background talking and froze.

“It’s talking to him? It shouldn’t be able to do that i-it should only be following orders…”

“Bakura do something...”

“Yugi.” The taller of the two short amethysts with spiked white hair and a scary looking face came forward and the gem turned fully around fearfully, bringing up the memory of Yugi’s cry and pressing down on it rapidly.

 _“Noooo!”_ At the mirror’s cry, Yugi placed his hand on the mirror with a confused expression.

“You should just give us back the mirror. It’s malfunctioning and we need to put it away, somewhere safe where we can watch it.” The last part sounded like an afterthought and the gem in the mirror brought up the memory on multiple screens and pressed them all.

 _“NoNoNoNooooo!”_ _Yugi please, don’t let them take me! They’ll just store me away again!_ The poor human looked terribly conflicted.

“Wha…”

“Yugi. Give me the mirror.” Yugi looked fearfully between the mirror and the amethyst and backed away nervously.

“It doesn’t want to go with you! Don’t you hear it’s screaming?” 

“Yugi, it’s just a mirror. A tool! It can’t want anything.” The amethyst looked conflicted himself but reached forward to take the mirror. The gem inside beat his fists against the multiple screens, playing them over and over again desperately.

 _"NoNoNoNooooo!”_ The room was filled with Yugi’s overlapping cry. _Don’t let them take me! I don’t want to go back to the darkness! Yugi please!_ The hand filled the window of the mirror and the gem inside fell back and shook with fear. This was it. Back to the darkness.

Then, suddenly, it was knocked away and Yugi’s firm voice filled the glass room.

“It doesn’t want you!” The mirror fell into stunned silence as did the real world outside the window. Yugi had knocked away the hand and accidentally smacked it into the amethysts face and when the amethyst turned back, he no longer looked uncertain.

Yugi looked at his hand and then to the amethyst before jumping up in terrified surprise and flying out the door. “Ah! I’m sorry!” He ran down the steps and hurried down the beach and the gem inside the mirror watched, stunned, holding his hand with his cracked gem to his chest.

“What am I gonna do? Atem isn’t here… he wouldn’t take you away because you can talk…” Yugi looked down at the mirror, his violet eyes scared and confused. “What’s their problem with you?!”

Memories started drifting up from the floor like a dam with a leak, starting out as a trickle and growing into a river of light orbs as thousands of years of memories were jumbled together, trying to find one that could explain everything, but unable to in the anxiety of the moment. Yugi must have seen something on the other side of the window as he spoke in distress.

“Are you trying to say something?” A few memories circled the trapped gem and he touched them in passing.

 _“...away from home...... LET- ME- OOOOOoout.....”_ Yugi shook his head and the mirror in affliction.

“I don’t understand!” The human said and he turned his head with an anxious look when he heard the other gems call his name.

_"Yugi!"_

“Come on! I want to help you! What do I need to do!” In the mirror, the screens reverted back to orbs and melded together. The gem was lifted off the glass floor as the light swirled around him and he glared at the window.

_With this I use all the power of the mirror. Please, understand._

The light turned into one giant screen which filled the window and depicted Yugi taking the gem off of the back of the mirror, a memory the gem created himself.

_Set me free!_

Yugi’s expression became determined and the window was filled with the image of the ocean as he turned the mirror around to take the gem off of it.

 _The ocean,_ the gem thought. He felt a tugging and the edges of the window began to crack. _I can’t believe how much I missed it._

The water began to pool around Yugi’s feet but the boy barely noticed as he pulled and pulled on the gem as hard as he could. And finally, he ripped the gem off of the mirror’s back with a hard snap and the window shattered into pieces.

And then he felt himself come into existence, for the first time in thousands of years.

He felt his body form photon by photon. He felt his hair and dress form and ribbons tie around his arms. He felt the real weight of his cracked gem heavily on his left hand. Of course, this was all an appetizer compared to the feeling of the sand he fell on scraping his knees and the wind from the ocean hitting his face. The sound of the ocean and smell of salt filling his head and running through his body in tremors.

He was real.

He was _real._

He could hear, with his _own_ ears, Yugi pad up behind him hesitantly and he turned his glassy, blank, _scarred_ eyes towards the human with so many things to say, with his _own_ voice, but only one way to say them. With a voice that hadn’t been heard for multiple millennia, he spoke.

_“Thank you.”_

He had forgotten how his own voice sounded.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know if I should rewrite the scene at the top of the water tower or anything else as another one shot cause I'm obsessed with this AU.


End file.
